With A Little Self-criticism One Can See Through The Shadow—so Far As Its Nature Is Personal.

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With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow—so far as its nature is personal.

One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, would belong to the realm of the shadow—that is, to the negative side of the personality.

This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite sex, in a man’s case to a woman and vice versa.

The source of projections is no longer the shadow—which is always of the same sex as the subject—but a contrasexual figure.

Here we meet the animus of a woman and the anima of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections.

Though the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and animus, it represents first and foremost the personal unconscious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without too much difficulty.

In this it differs from anima and animus, for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized.

With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow—so far as its nature is personal.

But when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus.

In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil. ~Carl Jung, CW 9ii, Para 19